Marcus Cole
| last_appearance = | portrayed_by = Steven Silver |seasons = 1 • 2|gender = Male}} Marcus Cole is a recurring character on 13 Reasons Why. He is portrayed by Steven Silver. Marcus is a senior at Liberty High School. He is the subject of tape 6, where he is responsible for humiliating Hannah Baker in public on their One Dollar Valentine's date. Along with Bryce Walker and Courtney Crimsen he serves as one of the primary antagonists of the first season. Early Life To be added Throughout the Series Season 1 In the flashback, Marcus supposedly got Hannah Baker for his #1 for the Dollar Valentine event. He proceeds to ask her out on a date at Rosie's, and she said she'd think about it. She made up her mind and said yes, but didn't realize that Marcus is using her because she is "easy". Marcus then shows up an hour late and drinks out of her milkshake. He moves to sit in the same side as Hannah, but only to make a move on her. He then got pushed onto the floor, then leaves with the guys he came with in the end. Season 2 Five months following the events of season 1 Marcus is called to testify in court regarding Hannah Baker being bullied. Marcus lied on the witness stand about how he treated Hannah and how Hannah liked Bryce Walker. Tyler Down and Cyrus know he is lying and after finding a video of Marcus Cole receiving a lap dance at the Clubhouse, they decide to blackmail Marcus into going against the people he was protecting. After a few harmless pranks Tyler and Cyrus decided to go a step further and force Marcus to admit Bryce is a rapist at the first baseball game for the Liberty Tigers. Fearing the loss of his reputation if not expulsion, Marcus openly admitted to everyone who was attended at the game that Bryce was a rapist and he cannot openly associate himself with Bryce any longer. Marcus was suspended due to this outburst and is not seen for the remainder of the series. Marcus's Mistake (Reason #6) Marcus is Hannah's sixth reason for why she committed suicide. At Rosie's Diner, Marcus keeps Hannah waiting for over an hour. When he does show up he brings his friends and begins his date with Hannah, sitting on the opposite side. He manages to almost get Hannah to forgive him for being late and switches side to sitting right next to her, as he begins flirting and touching Hannah's leg although she doesn't want him to, she sees him keep looking back at her friends and realizes it was a dare to try and see if she was easy and that he doesn't care about her at all. Hannah begins to get upset but Marcus continues to sexually harass her until she pushes him out of the booth, angering him and making him leave. Personality Marcus is shown to be an intelligent but also extremely cruel, arrogant and selfish person. While he appears to be a model student at Liberty High, Marcus is shown to truly only care about himself and, like Courtney, appears to be concerned only about protecting his "perfect" reputation and is willing to resort to extreme measures to ensure this by hiding Hannah's tapes and also covering up Bryce's crimes in order to protect himself and the others on the list. He even appears to be willing to use Bryce's as a scapegoat in order to minimize the damage to himself and the others responsible for Hannah's suicide. He is willing to cause harm to others in order to protect himself and the others on the tapes by intimidating Clay and framing him for being a marijuana user. He is somewhat manipulative to as he reaches out to Clay a few times and invites him to social gatherings though it is shown he is only doing this to distract him from the tapes as much as possible. Like some other boys at Liberty High, Marcus appears to be somewhat of a bully and disrespectful towards girls as he is shown ridiculing Hannah and the only reason he took Hannah out was to find out if she was "easy" and assumed she wanted to date him and attempted to sexually assault her in public. He is shown to have a hot temper as seen after Hannah pushed him away. He appears to show little, if any remorse for what he did to Hannah and claims that by killing herself she only wanted attention and that her leaving her tapes behind was a screwed up thing to do. During his deposition, he only admits that he may have hurt Hannah's feelings, though he claims it was not intentional. It is possible that the only reason he admits this much is because other students, including Zach, saw this exchange and it might come up, as Zach seemingly agreed to tell the truth at Monet's when they discussed it. In Season Two, Marcus has not changed his ways, and still prioritizes himself above the truth. After getting a scholarship to Harvard, and afraid to screw it up, he lies on the witness stand and claims Hannah only went out with him to see if he could get her close to Bryce. He is shown to be more cruel than he appeared to be in Season One, as it is revealed he did not actually get Hannah as any of his matches, and only called her because of a bet he made with Bryce. After being rejected, he lied to save his reputation and told Montgomery and Scott that Hannah only wanted people to think she was a slut because she enjoyed the attention, which led to more rumors about Hannah. When confronted about this, he lies to Bryce and claims he did it so if Bryce is asked if he raped Hannah, Marcus' story could provide the claim that Hannah liked him. This attitude causes others to plot against him, and due to the fact that everyone realizes he is lying for himself, no one wants to help him, not even Bryce. This self-centered attitude eventually leads to him getting suspended after calling Bryce a rapist, and he is not seen again, leaving it unknown if he learns anything from his mistakes. Physical Appearance To be added Relationships Courtney Crimsen Marcus and Courtney are both members of the honor board, and throughout the series are the most willing to cover up the tapes. They appear to get along for most of the time. The only time their interests don't exactly align is when Courtney finds out Marcus framed Clay for drug possession, though she quickly agrees when Marcus explains his reasons. However, in Season Two, after Courtney admits her mistakes while Marcus refuses to, their relationship takes a turn for the worse. After Clay leaks the tapes, revealing Hannah's side of the story, Courtney shows Marcus no sympathy. It is also shown that she knew he was going out with Hannah on a bet, and disapproved of it. Alex Standall and Zach Dempsey Marcus appears to be friends with Alex and Zach, as he is shown hanging out with them at Bryce's house and they talk about covering up the tapes. He also brings Zach to his date with Hannah and rides in his car in Tape 1, Side A. However, they eventually disagree on how to handle the tapes, as Alex, and eventually Zach, want to admit the truth, while Marcus does not. It also appears that Alex does not respect him, as he mentions at the honor board hearing that the board, including Marcus, is "so honorable" and at Monet's, tells him that he will do anything to preserve his reputation. Bryce Walker Marcus and Bryce appear to be friends in public, and Marcus is shown at parties at Bryce's house. However, despite this, Marcus is willing to use Bryce as a scapegoat to protect himself. In Season Two, their relationship falls apart after Marcus lies on the stand and claims Hannah was interested in Bryce. He claims he did this to give Bryce footing in the trial when questioned, which Bryce seemingly believes. However, when Marcus is blackmailed by Tyler, Bryce offers him no help. Marcus later calls Bryce a rapist, which leads to Bryce ending their friendship. Tyler Down Marcus and Tyler despise each other. Marcus frequently excludes Tyler from discussions about the tapes, and when he does show up, rarely takes his opinion into account. Marcus even threatens Tyler when they find out about the subpoenas, warning him that he will make what happened to Clay look minor. Tyler, in turn, dislikes Marcus. He tells Marcus that he has incriminating photos of him (possibly planting weed in Clay's bag), and later Marcus' picture is shown on Tyler's "hit list", implying Tyler may want to kill him as revenge for bullying him. In Season Two, after Marcus lies on the stand, Tyler vandalizes his car with a paint explosion, also writing HYPOCRITE on the car. He and Cyrus later force Marcus to wear a dress to the pep rally, though Marcus manages to make this look like a publicity stunt, and later force him to call Bryce a rapist in front of the whole school, which causes Marcus to get suspended. Clay Jensen Marcus and Clay at first had a cordial relationship, even after Clay learned Marcus was on the tapes. However, Marcus frequently attempts to silence Clay, and his attempts become more extreme as the series progresses. At first he only invites him to parties at Bryce's house, then plants weed in his bag, getting him suspended. He also tells the others that he doesn't care about what happens to Clay's record as long as the tapes don't get out, showing his selfishness. It is unknown how Clay feels about Marcus personally, or if he knows Marcus planted the weed, but it is likely he dislikes him for his remorselessness over his role in Hannah's death. He even said it's "all their fault" to the whole honor board, including Marcus, following a fight between Tyler and Montgomery, and said numerous times to Marcus that he wouldn't stop listening to the tapes. Hannah Baker Marcus and Hannah had an extremely poor relationship. After Alex included Hannah's ass on the best/worst list Marcus was shown among the other jocks following her and staring at her ass and ridiculing her. However when the time for Valentines came, Marcus appeared to have feelings for her and wanted to take her out for a date which after some charming pressure, Hannah accepted. She herself even revealed that she always kind of liked Marcus. However Marcus kept her waiting at Rosie's diner for nearly an hour and when he finally did show up, he brought his whole gang of buddies along. While he apologized for making her wait, Marcus' true intentions for taking Hannah out were gradually revealed after he sat next to her and began inappropriately touching her, and looking to his gang of friends sitting behind them and this made Hannah realize that the reason for the date was for Marcus to prove that the rumors about her being easy and a slut were true. An angered Hannah called Marcus an asshole and pushed him out of the booth, making him angered and he then left. His actions completely frightened Hannah. The two rarely interacted much after this incident and Marcus never showed any remorse for his actions when Hannah was alive. Marcus shows absolutely no remorse for Hannah's death, nor his actions towards her and openly tells Clay that nothing that happened to Hannah was any different from what other girls experience in every high school, despite the fact she was raped and bullied and claims she killed herself just for attention and is disgusted at the fact that she left her tapes behind, claiming no one deserves that. Marcus does all in his power to make it seem like he and the others at Liberty High cared about Hannah by putting up anti-suicide posters and a memorial for her. He wants her tapes silenced at all costs for the purpose of protecting his "perfect" reputation as well as the others on the tapes and is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the tapes remain a secret, even if it includes harming and manipulating others. At his deposition Marcus only reveals that he may have hurt Hannah's feelings during their Valentines date and completely excludes the fact that he humiliated her and attempted to sexually assault her in public. Appearances Season 1 * * * * * * * * * * * Season 2 * * * * * * Quotes Trivia *In the books, his name is Marcus Cooley, but in the adaptation, his name is Marcus Cole. *He is Liberty High's student body president. *He and Sheri are the only people on the tapes not seen at the Winter Formal. *He, Sheri and Tyler are the only people on the tapes not seen at the Spring Fling. Gallery |-|Promotional= 13 Reasons Why Character Poster Marcus Cole.jpg Season 2 Character Portrait Marcus Cole.jpg |-|Seasons 1 Screencaps= |-|Season 2 Screencaps= References de:Marcus Cole Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Season 1 Characters Category:Recurring Characters Category:Antagonists Category:Season 2 Characters